Spoilers for this week’s episode below. You’ve been warned.
Man, so you thought Rick was crazy before? Now, in the wake of Lori’s death, Rick is officially off his rocker. We’ve slowly been seeing Rick slip further and further from sanity, resembling something that mirrors Rick’s late friend, Shane, and that goes even further in this week’s episode, “Say the Word.”
What’s also interesting about this episode is that it shows an interesting contrast between life for our “good guys” and “Bad guys.” The good guys – team Rick – are living in filth and burying a third of their group. Meanwhile, the bad guys – team Governor – are partying it up, literally. Hell, they have cold drinks for Pete’s sake! Woodbury is painted as a true paradise, although we all know this illusion isn’t going to stick as was hinted at by the episode’s final scene in the town.
Speaking of The Walking Dead’s version of WWE wrestling, “Say the Word” featured quite a few callbacks to Robert Kirkman’s original comic. The boxing match, for instance, was in the original books, albeit far more grim and more a gladiatorial event with someone dying in the end for the audience’s entertainment. Additionally, the Governor taking care of his zombie daughter is from the books, and was pulled off pretty much identically here. And lastly, the ringing phone at the very end of the episode, but we’ll get to that shortly.
We also see more of a divide between Andrea and Michonne in this week, although Andrea probably realized her mistake in not leaving when she witnessed the entire town of Woodbury cheering like savages at the wrestling event. Andrea is definitely in a tight spot without Michonne by her side. This also means that Michonne might finally make her way to the prison and meet Rick and the rest of the gang, leading them back to Woodbury to potentially save Andrea later on.
The other major character to get some time to shine this week, however small it may have been, was Daryl. While we, the audience, don’t buy Carol being dead, he has no reason to think otherwise, what with them stumbling upon her head rag next to the mangled corpse of T-Dog. So the scenes in the nursery where Daryl notices a nametag for Sophia, as well as him paying his final respects for Carol at her grave were quite poignant. It’s kind of interesting to see someone as levelheaded as Rick losing his marbles completely with the dead of a loved one, while a wildcard – at least at the beginning of the show – like Daryl is much more reserved. Also, Daryl feeding the baby was hilarious, although his name giving privileges should be immediately revoked.
Overall, “Say the Word” was another great episode that provided a nice cool down after last week’s tearjerker. We got plenty of great character moments and plenty of winks and nods to the comics for longtime readers.
Oh, and if you’re wondering who’s on the other line….
Erik Norris is a freelance writer for sites such as ComicVine, IGN and CraveOnline.com. You can stalk him on Twitter@Regular_Erik.